Some risked all but accident by meekly footing it, and accepted the ironical congratulations on the other side as best they might.
Young Torode had waited his turn with impatience.

He and Black Boy were on such terms that the latter would have made a bolt for home if the grasp on his bridle had relaxed for one moment.

Again and again his restlessness had suffered angry check which served only to increase it.

Neither horse nor rider was in any state for so critical a passage as the one before them.
There was no community of feeling between them, except of dislike, and the backbone of a common enterprise is mutual trust and good feeling.
To do him that much justice, Torode must have known that under the circumstances he was taking unusual risk.

But he had confidence in his own skill and mastery, and no power on earth would have deterred him from the attempt.
He leaped on Black Boy, turned him from the gulf and rode him up the Common.